Andrew Kevin Walker Hired To Write The Girl Who Played With Fire

Yesterday we reported that the chances of David Fincher directing a sequel to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo are extremely slim, and as of now the director has no plans of taking on The Girl Who Played With Fire. Now we have some news that could counter yesterday’s report, as Andrew Kevin Walker, who previously wrote Fincher’s Seven, has been hired to rewrite the script for the Dragon Tattoo sequel.

While a previous collaborator of Fincher’s doesn’t necessarily mean that Fincher is still on board, it does bode well for him at least having some involvement going forward. It appears Sony wants to shoot this film at a time that allows Fincher to be involved, and the project’s timeline may be adapted to the director’s schedule. What this does ensure is that Sony is at least attempting to move forward with the project, as opposed to scrapping it completely like many were reporting last winter.

Sony previously paid big bucks to have Steve Zaillian write the first draft, and the fact Walker is now working on a new take may be cause for concern. It’s common Hollywood practice to have multiple writers do passes and drafts of a script, but we’re hearing that Walker may be taking the film in an entirely different direction, as opposed to just tweaking Zaillian’s script.

There was word a few months ago that Sony was considering writing Daniel Craig out of the next film. With the massive success of Skyfall, it seems Craig wants a bigger paycheck, but Sony is trying to cut costs on this project, not increase them. It’d certainly be cheaper to hire a writer to do a new version of the story sans-Blomkvist, but it would definitely not be the right route for the franchise to go. Fans get angry when minor things are changed in film adaptations. To completely write out the main character from such a beloved series would leave audiences furious, and if Sony wants to go that route, then this sequel might as well not be connected to 2011’s film.

Then again, Walker could simply be writing another version with Blomkvist included. There’s no new information to say his version is writing out Craig’s character. That’s just something I’m nervous Sony is actually going to do, so any news that could indicate moving in that direction is an automatic red flag for me.

What do you think of Walker getting hired for The Girl Who Played With Fire? Am I reading too far into this? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.